Section 2: Definitions (Part 2 of 2)

• (25) "omission" denotes as well as a series of omissions as a single omission;
• (26) "person" includes any company or association or body of persons, whether incorporated or not;
• (27) "public" includes any class of the public or any community;
• (28) "public servant" means a person falling under any of the descriptions, namely: -
  • (a) every commissioned officer in the Army, Navy or Air Force;
  • (b) every Judge including any person empowered by law to discharge, whether by himself or as a member of any body of persons, any adjudicatory functions;
  • (c) every officer of a Court including a liquidator, receiver or commissioner whose duty it is, as such officer, to investigate or report on any matter of law or fact, or to make, authenticate, or keep any document, or to take charge or dispose of any property, or to execute any judicial process, or to administer any oath, or to interpret, or to preserve order in the Court, and every person specially authorised by a Court to perform any of such duties;
  • (d) every assessor or member of a panchayat assisting a Court or public servant;
  • (e) every arbitrator or other person to whom any cause or matter has been referred for decision or report by any Court, or by any other competent public authority;
  • (f) every person who holds any office by virtue of which he is empowered to place or keep any person in confinement;
  • (g) every officer of the Government whose duty it is, as such officer, to prevent offences, to give information of offences, to bring offenders to justice, or to protect the public health, safety or convenience;
  • (h) every officer whose duty it is, as such officer, to take, receive, keep or expend any property on behalf of the Government, or to make any survey, assessment or contract on behalf of the Government, or to execute any revenue-process, or to investigate, or to report, on any matter affecting the pecuniary interests of the Government, or to make, authenticate or keep any document relating to the pecuniary interests of the Government, or to prevent the infraction of any law for the protection of the pecuniary interests of the Government;
  • (i) every officer whose duty it is, as such officer, to take, receive, keep or expend any property, to make any survey or assessment or to levy any rate or tax for any secular common purpose of any village, town or district, or to make, authenticate or keep any document for the ascertaining of the rights of the people of any village, town or district;
  • (j) every person who holds any office by virtue of which he is empowered to prepare, publish, maintain or revise an electoral roll or to conduct an election or part of an election;
  • (k) every person -
    • (i) in the service or pay of the Government or remunerated by fees or commission for the performance of any public duty by the Government;
    • (ii) in the service or pay of a local authority as defined in clause (31) of section 3 of the General Clauses Act, 1897, a corporation established by or under a Central or State Act or a Government company as defined in clause (45) of section 2 of the Companies Act, 2013.

Explanation. -

• (a) persons falling under any of the descriptions made in this clause are public servants, whether appointed by the Government or not;
• (b) every person who is in actual possession of the situation of a public servant, whatever legal defect there may be in his right to hold that situation is a public servant;
• (c) "election" means an election for the purpose of selecting members of any legislative, municipal or other public authority, of whatever character, the method of selection to which is by, or under any law for the time being in force.

Illustration.

A Municipal Commissioner is a public servant;

• (29) "reason to believe". - A person is said to have "reason to believe" a thing, if he has sufficient cause to believe that thing but not otherwise;
• (30) "special law" means a law applicable to a particular subject;
• (31) "valuable security" means a document which is, or purports to be, a document whereby any legal right is created, extended, transferred, restricted, extinguished or released, or whereby any person acknowledges that he lies under legal liability, or has not a certain legal right.

Illustration.

A writes his name on the back of a bill of exchange. As the effect of this endorsement is to transfer the right to the bill to any person who may become the lawful holder of it, the endorsement is a "valuable security";

• (32) "vessel" means anything made for the conveyance by water of human beings or of property;
• (33) "voluntarily". - A person is said to cause an effect "voluntarily" when he causes it by means whereby he intended to cause it, or by means which, at the time of employing those means, he knew or had reason to believe to be likely to cause it.

Illustration.

A sets fire, by night, to an inhabited house in a large town, for the purpose of facilitating a robbery and thus causes the death of a person. Here, A may not have intended to cause death; and may even be sorry that death has been caused by his act; yet, if he knew that he was likely to cause death, he has caused death voluntarily;

• (34) "will" means any testamentary document;
• (35) "woman" means a female human being of any age;
• (36) "wrongful gain" means gain by unlawful means of property to which the person gaining is not legally entitled;
• (37) "wrongful loss" means the loss by unlawful means of property to which the person losing it is legally entitled;
• (38) "gaining wrongfully" and "losing wrongfully". - A person is said to gain wrongfully when such person retains wrongfully, as well as when such person acquires wrongfully. A person is said to lose wrongfully when such person is wrongfully kept out of any property, as well as when such person is wrongfully deprived of property; and
• (39) words and expressions used but not defined in this Sanhita but defined in the Information Technology Act, 2000 and the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 shall have the meanings respectively assigned to them in that Act and Sanhita:

Provided that any reference in this Sanhita to the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, shall be construed as a reference to the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023.